paper • 100 pages • 15.95
ISBN-13: 978-1-935536-17-8
EMPRESS DOWAGER BOOGIES
Last night I found my face below
the water in my cupped hands.
The mask made of copper and bone
criss-crossing to make a smirk,
a false glamour, a plated glaze.
I unwound myself from the heavy
machinery of my body’s burden.
The lute, the light, chime.
I’ll get up and partner myself
with music, the purple moon
peeling itself like a plum.
Men stand in a circle and
they will ask and ask again.
I want to pick the thick bud,
to lose myself in the body’s
posture bending in or away, to let
my majesty and birthright go
and gesture toward a waking life.
“Open this book and read the first poem ‘ Unfinished Book of Mortals ‘ and see if you can put the book down. Tina Chang is writing to the future, from the past towards the present, and all the way back again. Of Gods & Strangers is haunted, intoxicating, and revelatory, ”the voice, ‘neither evil nor kind’ is ferociously alive.” —Marie Howe
“I read with a quickening, as if I couldn’t turn pages fast enough, even while wanting to slow down and savor lines. My heart beat faster, the way it does with a novel I can’t put down: it is 3am and the arc of someone’s voice won’t release me. This is an important and heart-breaking work by the Poet Laureate of Brooklyn.” Read the full review.